Ethical scope and authority of interventions for users without perceived problematic use

Determine whether users who do not perceive their own smartphone use as problematic need interventions and who is entitled to decide otherwise, while addressing the associated ethical concerns about autonomy and paternalism.

Background

The study recruited participants who were interested in reducing excessive smartphone use and excluded several participants who consistently reported no intention-behavior gap. The authors note that such participants may either have lacked genuine engagement with the study or may simply not have experienced an intention-behavior gap during the observation period, limiting the generalizability of the findings.

This sampling issue raises a broader unresolved question about whether intervention systems should target people who do not themselves regard their smartphone use as problematic. The problem concerns both the necessity of intervention and the authority to define problematic use, particularly because imposing interventions on unconcerned users may threaten autonomy and constitute paternalism. The authors identify this as an issue that future work must address explicitly.